25% of HK mobile owners under 13

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Hong Kong's obsession with mobile phones has taken a new turn as
a survey today found a quarter of all phone owners were under 13
years old, with some as young as six.

Sixty-seven percent of the 613 households interviewed by the
Ming Pao Daily News said that family members under the age
of 18 owned a mobile phone, with more than a quarter of them under
13 and 5.1 percent under six.

Some 80 percent of the respondents said their youngsters used
new handsets with only 20 percent using second-hand phones, the
survey said.

The newspaper said one girl had been using a mobile since she
was five because of peer pressure. She favoured those with new
looks and different functions.

Now 13, she has owned more than 10 phones and her latest one
cost her 3000 Hong Kong dollars ($US385).

"To spend three thousand dollars on a mobile phone is okay; to
get a new one a year on average isn't too much," the girl, named
Agnes, was quoted as saying.

Hong Kong mobile phone ownership is the highest in Asia, with 86
percent of the city's 6.9 million people owning one or more mobile
phones, according to a study by technology research company TNS
last year.